# CVE-2025-68310: s390/pci: Avoid deadlock between PCI error recovery and mlx5 crdump

> A race condition in the Linux kernel s390 PCI subsystem can cause a deadlock during error recovery, leading to a denial of service.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 16 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2025-68310, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-68310, GHSA-f5pp-8jv2-77ph, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2025-68310, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-13-CVE-2025-68310, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-68310, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-68310, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-68310

## What is CVE-2025-68310?

CVE-2025-68310 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Dec 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

s390/pci: Avoid deadlock between PCI error recovery and mlx5 crdump

Do not block PCI config accesses through pci_cfg_access_lock() when
executing the s390 variant of PCI error recovery: Acquire just
device_lock() instead of pci_dev_lock() as powerpc's EEH and
generig PCI AER processing do.

During error recovery testing a pair of tasks was reported to be hung:

mlx5_core 0000:00:00.1: mlx5_health_try_recover:338:(pid 5553): health recovery flow aborted, PCI reads still not working
INFO: task kmcheck:72 blocked for more than 122 seconds.
      Not tainted 5.14.0-570.12.1.bringup7.el9.s390x #1
"echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.
task:kmcheck         state:D stack:0     pid:72    tgid:72    ppid:2      flags:0x00000000
Call Trace:
 [<000000065256f030>] __schedule+0x2a0/0x590
 [<000000065256f356>] schedule+0x36/0xe0
 [<000000065256f572>] schedule_preempt_disabled+0x22/0x30
 [<0000000652570a94>] __mutex_lock.constprop.0+0x484/0x8a8
 [<000003ff800673a4>] mlx5_unload_one+0x34/0x58 [mlx5_core]
 [<000003ff8006745c>] mlx5_pci_err_detected+0x94/0x140 [mlx5_core]
 [<0000000652556c5a>] zpci_event_attempt_error_recovery+0xf2/0x398
 [<0000000651b9184a>] __zpci_event_error+0x23a/0x2c0
INFO: task kworker/u1664:6:1514 blocked for more than 122 seconds.
      Not tainted 5.14.0-570.12.1.bringup7.el9.s390x #1
"echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.
task:kworker/u1664:6 state:D stack:0     pid:1514  tgid:1514  ppid:2      flags:0x00000000
Workqueue: mlx5_health0000:00:00.0 mlx5_fw_fatal_reporter_err_work [mlx5_core]
Call Trace:
 [<000000065256f030>] __schedule+0x2a0/0x590
 [<000000065256f356>] schedule+0x36/0xe0
 [<0000000652172e28>] pci_wait_cfg+0x80/0xe8
 [<0000000652172f94>] pci_cfg_access_lock+0x74/0x88
 [<000003ff800916b6>] mlx5_vsc_gw_lock+0x36/0x178 [mlx5_core]
 [<000003ff80098824>] mlx5_crdump_collect+0x34/0x1c8 [mlx5_core]
 [<000003ff80074b62>] mlx5_fw_fatal_reporter_dump+0x6a/0xe8 [mlx5_core]
 [<0000000652512242>] devlink_health_do_dump.part.0+0x82/0x168
 [<0000000652513212>] devlink_health_report+0x19a/0x230
 [<000003ff80075a12>] mlx5_fw_fatal_reporter_err_work+0xba/0x1b0 [mlx5_core]

No kernel log of the exact same error with an upstream kernel is
available - but the very same deadlock situation can be constructed there,
too:

- task: kmcheck
  mlx5_unload_one() tries to acquire devlink lock while the PCI error
  recovery code has set pdev->block_cfg_access by way of
  pci_cfg_access_lock()
- task: kworker
  mlx5_crdump_collect() tries to set block_cfg_access through
  pci_cfg_access_lock() while devlink_health_report() had acquired
  the devlink lock.

A similar deadlock situation can be reproduced by requesting a
crdump with
  > devlink health dump show pci/<BDF> reporter fw_fatal

while PCI error recovery is executed on the same <BDF> physical function
by mlx5_core's pci_error_handlers. On s390 this can be injected with
  > zpcictl --reset-fw <BDF>

Tests with this patch failed to reproduce that second deadlock situation,
the devlink command is rejected with "kernel answers: Permission denied" -
and we get a kernel log message of:

mlx5_core 1ed0:00:00.1: mlx5_crdump_collect:50:(pid 254382): crdump: failed to lock vsc gw err -5

because the config read of VSC_SEMAPHORE is rejected by the underlying
hardware.

Two prior attempts to address this issue have been discussed and
ultimately rejected [see link], with the primary argument that s390's
implementation of PCI error recovery is imposing restrictions that
neither powerpc's EEH nor PCI AER handling need. Tests show that PCI
error recovery on s390 is running to completion even without blocking
access to PCI config space.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-68310?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-68310?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-68310 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68310 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-68310 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-68310 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 16 Dec 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-68310 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68310/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68310/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-68310
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-68310
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-68310

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-68310/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
